A restaurant manager who stashed almost £58,000 of drugs money in his bedroom has been jailed for three years and had every penny of the cash confiscated from him.

Cash totalling £57,811.30 was found in 32-year-old Kamran Amin's bedroom on Breckon Hill Road, Middlesbrough - almost £40,000 in a briefcase, the rest in batches of notes and coins in drawers, a wardrobe and at his bedside.

Amin, now of Wellesley Road, also had £380 cash on him when he returned home to the search on April 5, 2004.

A Teesside Crown Court order yesterday confiscated the total of £58,191.30.

Over 90pc of the tested bank notes were contaminated with heroin, compared to the expected 2pc in the Middlesbrough area.

Officers also found a list of "people that owe me money" with figures amounting to some £41,000, alleged to be drug debts, said prosecutor Adrian Strong.

Amin claimed nearly £40,000 of the money was his father's savings, while the rest was his own income as a private hire operator.

He denied money laundering, but was convicted by a jury of nine charges of possessing criminal property last month .

He previously admitted ten counts of obtaining money transfers by deception, relating to unsigned credit card slips also found by police.

The unauthorised transactions between May 15 and 18, 2002, added up to a total value of £2,121.30. They were made through Kismet, the Stockton restaurant which Amin managed and his father owned.

Ian West, defending, said these happened during a trade downturn, achieved nothing because the bank clawed back the money and in fact hastened the death of the business as the card machine was removed.

He added Amin was capable of earning an honest living.

Judge Peter Bowers told Amin his three-year sentence would probably have been doubled if he had been directly involved in drug dealing.

The conviction, sentence and cash confiscation has been hailed as the first success of a new police money laundering unit, working with the Regional Asset Recovery Team.

Detective Constable Sean Wheatley said outside court: "We've delighted. We've been able to separate criminal property from the criminal. The money will go to the Treasury and it will be used to pursue further inquiries."

Amin was given concurrent three-month sentences for the deception offences.